


Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

by thunder_fox_7



Series: Tubbo-centric One Shots :) [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Explosions, Gen, Introspection, One Shot, Spoilers for January 6 streams, allusions to hurt and the beginnings of allusions to comfort, also theres a bit of a shoutout to the audience/chat because i wanted to, because apparently that's all i can write lol, honestly im just sorting through my thoughts using tubbo, i actually had to use the wiki for this one i usually just go based on my vague memories, i describe smoke a lot, i loved this rendition of the anthem, no beta we die like L'Manberg: multiple times and always by explosions, they sing my lmanberg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28619979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunder_fox_7/pseuds/thunder_fox_7
Summary: “Should we sing the anthem one last time?” Quackity asks, and he’s covered in cuts and bruises, blood and ash. The air is suffocating and the sound of explosions shakes them even this high up (or maybe Tubbo's just shaking, he doesn't know anymore).OrThey sing the anthem to the country they built and destroyed, and Tubbo uses the opportunity to reflect and let go.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot, sort of there's not much focus on the relationships
Series: Tubbo-centric One Shots :) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2128623
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

“Should we sing the anthem one last time?” Quackity asks, and he’s covered in cuts and bruises, blood and ash. The air is suffocating and the sound of explosions shakes them even this high up (or maybe Tubbo's just shaking, he doesn't know anymore). 

They all nod, and Ghostbur (but in this moment, he’s barely distinguishable from the ruler they’d once followed to hell and back, the first president, their friend, their brother) opens his mouth, beginning the song that had woven itself into the very fabric of the country they’d built, destroyed, and fought war after war for. 

“I heard there was a special place,” he sings, voice as beautiful as it had been the first time he’d made up the anthem on the spot. Tubbo opens his own mouth, and through the smoke and distant explosions, he joins in. Quackity and Tommy do, as well, none of their voices as practiced as Wilbur’s had been but just as confident and brimming with emotion.

“Where men could go and emancipate, the brutality and tyranny of their rulers.”

Tubbo tries not to think about how when that line had been written, it had been for a clear cut enemy back when the war was simple and the battles fair. About how much more complicated and convoluted and painful it had all gotten. 

“Well, this place is real, you needn't fret, with Wilbur, Tommy, Tubbo, Fuck Eret”

Wilbur, Tommy, Tubbo, Eret. Four people who set out for freedom, for independence, for the chance to live happy lives. Four people who destroyed each other and themselves. Eret had been the first betrayal. The first to leave. Wilbur was next, then Tommy and Tubbo brought each other down (Tubbo knows Tommy fell further, but he also knows it’s not a competition).

“A very big and a little blown up L’Manberg”

The improvisation almost makes him laugh. He feels his mouth twitch toward a smile. The line is just so ridiculous and familiar in a way nothing has been in a long time. L'manberg is so much more than a little blown up- it's completely and utterly gone and there's nothing he can do about it. Nothing he wants to do about it, really.

“My L’Manberg,  
My L’Manberg,  
My L’Manberg,  
My L’Manberg”

He feels himself get louder for the chorus, hears the other three join him. They sing together, in unison, one voice despite it all, and Tubbo feels tears in his eyes from more than the smoke. It had been their L’Manberg. His, Wilbur’s, Tommy’s, Quackity’s, Fundy’s, Niki’s, Ranboo’s, hell, even Eret’s and Schlatt’s once. 

The smoke threatens to clog his lungs with each word he sings, filling his vision and almost obscuring the great irreparable crater beneath him and his precarious perch on the obsidian framework. The only thing the smoke doesn’t cover is the voices of his companions, tired and beaten down and mourning and celebrating and living through old memories. They’ve all gone separate ways, hurt each other more than any of them ever thought they were capable, but in this chorus, this song, this remnant of living history, they are one.

“For freedom and for liberty. Our nation sought to build on these, and victory for all under freedom.”

It’s as he sings this line that the realization that L’Manberg never even achieved its most basic goal hits him, and he’s filled with a sort of unintelligible emotion that he doesn’t want to sort through.

“Travels came and then it went, we built our walls and watched them break, And from everywhere from here up to forever.”

Tubbo misses the walls. He misses how safe he felt in them (he ignores that he’s not sure he ever felt safe in them, there had always been a threat around every corner). He misses walking along their edges to watch the nearby woods, misses leaning against them with Tommy during the times they could relax, at least some. He remembers helping to tear the walls down, remembers late one night when Tommy explained that he thinks that was when Wilbur really began to spiral. Tubbo wonders if he had stopped Schlatt from breaking the walls, would today have happened? He tries not to dwell on it because he doesn’t want to know the answer and because he doesn’t think it matters, anymore.

“Sing L’Manberg,  
Sing L’Manberg,  
Sing L’Manberg,  
Sing L’Manberg”

He realizes this is the perfect end to an imperfect anthem for a flawed nation. When this song ends, so does his country. He feels his own conflicting emotions fighting in his chest, and when grief and resignation win he’s not surprised. He can almost feel hundreds of thousands of voices singing along, their own pain and memories adding to the mix, and despite the tears he feels dripping down his cheeks, the explosions that punctuated each line and breath they took, and the shaky hand grabbing his he recognizes as Tommy’s, he thinks this is beautiful in its own twisted way.

L’Manberg is no one’s, not anymore. It’ll live on just in legends and fairy tales if at all, and it’ll be the people’s to remember and to sing. All its citizens, it’s enemies, it’s doubtful allies will carry the tale of the country Tubbo and Tommy and Wilbur and Quackity and Fundy and Niki and Ranboo and Schlatt and Eret and even Phil and Technoblade and Dream had built, shaped, and fought for and against. 

As the four’s voices trail off, carrying the song and story of L’Manberg with them, Tubbo doesn’t know what to feel. He squeezes the hand of his best friend, and he looks to the man who’d made him a soldier and the man who’d almost made him a tyrant, and he takes a deep breath. The air isn’t clear, it won’t be any time soon and it may never be again but he’s used to it. A thought he didn’t realize he believed until it creeps up from the depths of his mind fills his very being. 

It’s over. Finally, it’s over.

**Author's Note:**

> "...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" 
> 
> I wrote this at like four am in one sitting and then reread it a whole bunch (so sorry if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense). I just love this anthem and I love Tubbo's character and I wanted to put them together into one thing
> 
> also I'm beginning to discover I have the most fun writing introspective pieces for my favorite characters so that's neat
> 
> (honorable mention: after "Where men could emancipate the brutality and tyranny of their rulers" i wrote "This is the part of the song that never changes, steady and solid, and yet the only part untrue in every rendition." and while I didn't end up going with it I'm still proud of it and wanted to share)


End file.
